This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Manufacturing lines can include rivets, such as self-piercing rivets, to fasten or join components together. A transfer cabinet can minimize potential downtime of riveting machines setting such rivets by helping insure rivets are always being fed to the riveting machine. The transfer cabinet can receive the bulk (i.e., loose) rivets from a container and feed the rivets sequentially (i.e., one after another) to a rivet feeder, such as a pneumatic feeder, of the riveting machine.
It is important to insure that the rivets being fed to the riveting machine at a particular riveting station along a manufacturing line are the correct rivets for that particular riveting station or riveting machine. Self-piercing rivets, for example, can be made of different materials, made by different processes (e.g., heat treatments), or have different coatings thereon. In many cases, it is difficult to distinguish different self-piercing rivets from each other. Thus, it is desirable to have a system to help insure that only the correct rivets are received by a transfer cabinet for a particular riveting station or riveting machine, and that the rivets are genuine. Reliance upon a single feature or aspect of the container, such as a RFID tag or poke a yoke coupling, can be helpful, but it is desirable to include multiple features or aspects to help minimize the possibility of an inadvertent or intentional feeding of incorrect or non-genuine rivets into a transfer cabinet for a particular riveting machine.